Paul Rudd returns as Marvel’s dinkiest superhero in “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”

As the title to this sequel to 2015’s goofiest of Marvel Cinematic Universe entries “Ant-Man” indicates, this time Rudd’s lovable felon Scott Lang is joined in battling bad guys by Evangeline Lilly’s newly suited-up Hope van Dyne. Michael Douglas returns as Hope’s father, shrinking particle inventor Hank Pym, and Michelle Pfeiffer is OW (Original Wasp) Janet van Dyne, whom her daughter, husband and Lang – if he can escape house arrest long enough – hope to rescue from the subatomic Quantum Realm she’s been lost in for decades.

But this isn’t just a sequel to “Ant-Man.” While Peyton Reed, the director of both “Ant-Man” films, brings the same sizeable sense of humor to the new movie that he established in the first, he’s also making a sequel of sorts to 2016’s more gravely serious “Captain America: Civil War.” In that film, Lang pinched Pym’s size-shifting suit to fight on Cap’s losing side, introducing its ability to grow him into Giant Man in the process.

So “Ant-Man and the Wasp” now has big as well as little gags. And lots more of both.

“There were a lot of daunting sequences,” Reed admits. “We really wanted to set out and go nuts with the Pym particles technology in this movie. It occurred to us at some point, well, maybe it’s not just Ant-Man and Wasp who were shrinking and growing, but vehicles, buildings, et cetera. What that did was really create some technical challenges. Maybe the biggest is we did a whole car chase that took us through the city of San Francisco. We wanted to do a chase that you just simply wouldn’t see in another movie, with all the size changes.”

Inspired by classic Frisco moving mayhem from films as diverse as “Bullitt” and “What’s Up, Doc?,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp” turns into a kind of hi-tech Keystone Kops slapstick extravaganza, with all kinds of things switching sizes at often breakneck speed. It’s so breathtaking and hilarious that it almost makes you forget half the Marvel Cinematic Universe died a little more than two months ago at the end of “Avengers: Infinity War.” This film does too – it takes place before Thanos killed 50 percent of the universe – though you will want to stay for a post-credit sequence to learn just how this movie relates to those events.

Anyway, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” is also rich in verbal humor, romantic tension between Scott and Hope, bromantic tension between Scott and the federal agent responsible for overseeing his case (Randall Park), growmantic tension with another of Marvel’s complexly motivated antagonists, the physically intangible, quantum phasing Ghost (British actress Hannah John-Kamen), and enough variations on the theme of family to fuel a dozen movies.

But yeah, it’s the mad growth and shrink spurts that’ll get you most excited. It sure did the filmmakers.

“The first movie was all about getting people comfortable with this idea of Pym particles that could shrink things and, occasionally, grow things,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige explains. “People got that. Then in ‘Civil War,’ we saw him turn giant and people loved it. So the whole notion that Peyton Reed had was, how do we take that further? They build it into their vehicles, they incorporate it constantly, and having it happen so often, it becomes part of the thrill ride. These things grow and shrink, grow and shrink, and you’re not sure if you’re small or big right now until a bird comes in the window or something.”

Rudd, who is also one of the film’s five credited writers, acknowledged that with perspective parameters established, they could go nuts on this one.

“It gave us a little bit of leeway to lean into something maybe a little harder than we were able to at first, because now the character’s established,” Rudd says. “We’ve seen Scott in two other films. People buy the abilities, they buy me in the role, they understand the rules. So it felt as if we had a little bit more freedom to play into the humor, et cetera. The first time around, we were still modulating.”

For Lilly, whose Hope van Dyne spent the first “Ant-Man” training the less-skilled Lang and longing to get small herself (against her understandably wary father’s wishes), becoming the first Marvel superheroine with her name in a movie title was a long overdue step she was thrilled to take.

“Originally, Wasp was going to be introduced in ‘Captain America: Civil War,’” Lilly, of TV’s “Lost” fame, explained. “I never expressed it at the time – because, of course, how can you? – but secretly I was like, ‘Hmm. Oh well, it’s OK. I’m just stoked to be here, Dude. I’m just happy I get to put on a suit.’

“Then I got a call saying they decided not to put me in ‘Civil War.’ Then there was this moment, I could tell, when everybody in the room was like, ‘Sorry, don’t be offended!’ and I was like ‘Are they going to say what I think they’re going to say?’ Then they said it’s because they really wanted to dedicate a film to introducing this female superhero and didn’t want her to be a side note in this larger story.”

Wasp beats Brie Larson’s “Captain Marvel” into theaters by about nine months. Then, many key players from both movies are listed in the cast of next May’s “Avengers 4,” the sequel to “Infinity War” which Lang and company were noticeably absent from, considering almost every other major character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe showed up for it.

For now, though, the emphasis is not on saving the universe, but on wacky “Ant-Man and the Wasp” fun. But Marvel being Marvel, some underlying character aspects that give it dramatic heft between the ridiculous physical ups and downs.

“This is an emotional film when it comes to the family relationships,” Feige points out. “The father-daughter relationships and the mother-daughter relationships; the goal of this movie was to make an emotional, fun family picture.”

“The idea that Scott was never really sure about how he could be Ant-Man and a good parent, how those things could co-exist, that’s really what we wanted to hang this on, that very dilemma,” Rudd adds.

Bob Strauss has been covering film at the L.A. Daily News since 1989. He wouldn't say the movies have gotten worse in that time, but they do keep getting harder to love. Fortunately, he still loves them.